Friday, June 2, 2017

Why I Create Art - Off the Wall Friday

Good Question! I mean truly, why would someone take 25 years of their life learning how to sew art when they could learn how to sew perfectly good clothes? That took some thought and here's what I came up with.

1. I was called to create. I always have been creating something and at age 25 I finally chose that fabric was going to be my medium. My God made me unique and part of my uniqueness (apparently) includes creating. Its just who I am.

2. The puzzle and challenge of art - I mean, I see it in my mind's eye - so how am I'm going to convey it to the rest of the world?? Its the constant challenge that I love and the fact that its never quite right - but its never quite wrong that is totally fascinating to me.

3.Its uniquely me. There is nothing else that I do that is so more me. I love when someone can see my work and say - WoW, I knew that one was yours! Good or bad - its an original Nina

4. The connection. I love creative people - they are fun, strange, interesting, outrageous, etc The people I have met on my creative journey are the most fascinating individuals one could hope to find and I wouldn't have been met them if I wasn't one of them.

5.To make the World a better place. I know some artists have important political agendas to pursue with their art. I don't. I just want to make things that are pretty and interesting. Once, when I expressed this sentiment, a fellow artist looked at me like obviously I wasn't smart enough mature enough to know that there was more to art than that. I looked back at them and thought obviously they weren't giving beauty enough credit.

6. For something to do that isn't work. My husband Paul, who is an accomplished woodworker, said if he didn't create out in his shop then it would seem like all he did was get up - go to work - come home - watch TV and go to bed. Only to wake up the next day to repeat the whole mundane process again. When you create there is always something to new to discover.

So you get my drift. Creating is important to me. Also, in reflection, this blog has been a true blessing because I can share this journey with my reader.

13 comments:

Hi Nina-Marie, I love your quotes and your post. I agree with all of them. If I wasn't able to create, other than my family and friends there would be no point to this life. Working for a living is just not enough:-)

I love your post today. Those of us who are driven to create find it hard to explain to those who don't understand us but it isn't stopping us from creating. I am in love with color and how to manipulate it as I design my quilts.

Beauty is not shallow. It can be very, very deep. Ugliness is not deep. It can be very, very shallow. That said, there is more to art than just beauty ... but there can also be less to art than beauty. Art allows for both views in equal measure. For me, art is the passion I denied myself until the age of 42. Once unleashed, it is an energy that grows with every passing day and has filled my life with adventure unlike anything else. There is no turning back.

I have also written on this subject from time to time and I challenge my students to do the same often. All of the reasons you wrote about also apply to me, but I would add, that creating something of beauty is so important to reverse the negativity of the planet, to express love and joy, to remind us all to celebrate life. What we do is magic, and is so important for that reason and many others.

I was told by my mother that I was not very artistic, I can't draw to save my life, but with fabrics I can put into the world the images I have in my head. Creating is an act of self affirmation to my mom " You don't get to tell me what I am". Also Creating sooth my soul, in fact I think it is saving my life right now. I am on disability (maybe for the rest of my life at 43) being able to create, design and teach this passion make me more than my disability. I could write a book bout this subject :) Thank you for sharing

Because i must or i could bust!!. Because my hands are sometimes my imagination parts at work with fabric and color and texture and what if I ... all up in the air (picture a juggler) and how they all come down is in my hands! Because it is like dancing and making makes me happy and is good for me and all the planet! Because making something out of almost nothing that was not here before is quite headdy!

I love that little comic! Although I don't do much political art, from time to time it seeps out. I'm working on something that is definitely political now but most of the time I'd just as soon escape it all into my art. I salute those that do it though. I certaily appreciate the depths of beauty in art as I can also say of all art that resonates emotionally. I love art that clarifies and distills through simplicity as well, which may or may not be abstract. Sometimes I love art that looks quite simple at first glance but that keeps your eye wandering through some complex ideas as well. I create art for the same reasons most of us do: without art as a focus in my life, there would be a cavern of loss. In the process of creating, I find meaning and mindfulness, focus and direction, mostly joy, occasional sorrow and mmore often a level of frustration that motivates and spurs me on to new observations and to find solutions to posed problems. Art is the path to see all things just a little differently - it opens up new possibilities at every juncture.

I am still amazed at how many people have no concept of art quilts. My email address is quiltedfabricart and just the other day at the vets office she says oh! I see your email. Do you make art? What kind? Well, I say - art out of fabric that is then quilted. Oh! You mean like the old fashioned kind, she asks.